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Unusccessfully trying to pretend the above never happened, let's talk about how we depose the merchants' guild blokey.

- murder?
- libel? We could get handbills printed up by printing presses, then hire those urchins to distribute them
- talking to the Dukey Barony guy, maybe with a representative or a letter from the boss of the wizards and the King of the Dorfs?
- erm?

I reckon the whole "sneak into his house and brutally murder him to death" thing, while appealing, is likely to be problematic, at least in the aftermath. I doubt we'd get away clean, and it would still leave the city weakened by divisive taxes. (Is it our job as self-appointed adventurers to do something about that? Thwarting the opening of a portal to the demon realms, that's definitely something we should do, but addressing political instability in the Northern bulwark of the Empire, against a fairly nebulous potential threat of the city being invaded again? Do we have a responsibility to the Empire, or is it just a case of Ludo would really like to kill 'Gottfried' because he's meddling with chaos and Wittgensteins are in the "baddies" column in his mildly psychotic list?
What do you think? Do we need to "fix" the town, or just "fix" Gottfried and leg it out of the Empire until the heat cools down?

If we need to fix the town, how do we do it?
Also do we need to investigate this doctor and this "cure" for the son? Is the son "cured" because he is actually a doppleganger?

Just had a thought, a WFRP campaign where you play as the crew of a boat. And every week its just like a star trek away team as you explore some random new place. Dont bother with the time inbetween places.

Well you could just go to Ulthauan or what ever, Skeggi, Lustria, Mousillon, Marienburg. ETC. Would just be a good way to have small one or two shot adventures like the shadowrun game we play at the moment.

that was fun! We packed a lot in to one evening, despite a bit of a slow start. We met a larger than life italian fellow, we saw some opera, we got a guy dehypnotised, and I got an old west gunfight while you guys got an old east swordfight, and Harlander got drunk.
I particularly enjoyed mine and Xkots differing approaches to the old fight-opening conversational gambit:

"what the f*** do you pricks want? / piss off now or I'll shoot you in the face with this pistol before you can say 'what pistol'" contrasted with "we're on our way home gentlemen, if you wouldn't mind parting to let us through".

Oh, and I had an exciting moment where I used an fp to avoid a chamberpot attack (newly cleaned clothes and I'd just bathed, I'd have had to viciously murder the guy if he'd besmirched me) and then implied a tavern wench was a lady of negotiable virtue and accidentally found out about some kind of hypno-singer. We packed a lot into one session.
I even made earplugs specially, in case of unexpected hypno-singery at the opera, and was slightly disappointed not to need them. Bah.

What was that stuff about the little dog, by the way? Was it just supposed to lead the party to the tavern wench or did I miss some important plot point?

That Tilean dude seems like a great guy to have on our side, if only because whatever happens he'll turn up with some entertaining if dubiously plausible tale about how this reminds him of the time he tricked a pack of naked mole rat men into giving him their tribal regalia or whatever

Seriously, that last session reminded me why I turn up on Sundays, it was great fun. I got a big kick out of Lowkey's acting the Flamboyant Italian Guy character, and keeping track of about 4 different threads that the party had split up into as well. It was some proper GMing.

I can't say that I entirely trust the Tilean, but there's no denying that he's a great character. However, my favorite part was the unfolding drama around the poor champion, Dieter, whose home life will be a little rough after this.

Originally Posted by President Weasel

...keeping track of about 4 different threads that the party had split up into as well. It was some proper GMing.

Ya, it was like a good episode of 24, except that the waterboarding was postponed until next week.

It’s a triple update! I will try not to waffle but you know I am lying.

Our heroes discover the true meaning of Ulricmas, become all the champions, learn that dogs cannot in fact fly, that WFRP has ridiculously named NPC’s and drink all the drinks.

Festag, 33 Kaldezeit

While team Holmes are busy making friends with horrible immaterial monsters Gottfried [Harlander] is busy reacquainting himself with the simple comforts of civilised drinking establishments. While getting another round the nobleman is rudely knocked by a rich if seedy looking individual… wait just a minute! Although he has attempted a disguise there can be no doubt that this man is a Gottard von Wittgenstein, the last member of that terrible family, all the bars in all the city etc.

Gottfried tracks the man from bar to bar for sometime but eventually loses him and returns to the Templars Arms to update the rest of the party. The description of Gottard’s disguise, as well as a large and gaudy medallion confirms for Pieter [X_Kot] that this man is non other than Gotthard Goebbells, head of the merchants guild and Kommission on Commerce.

With this troubling news the party make their way down to the warehouse district and quickly find the strip of coldhouses with one prominently displaying the insignia of the merchant’s guild, coincidence? Of course not! The Egg [Egg] scales the building and lets down a rope, allowing the party to enter ninja like through a vent (except for Christoph [Gorm] who couldn’t make it in his plate).

Descending into the coldhouse the party can see that a wide space has been cleared and a sickening throbbing circle has been made, with a red and white striped obelisk in its centre. A number of people wearing very little are reciting chants, led by a robed individual. Having done this sort of thing before Egg and Ludo [President Weasel] open up with bow and pistol and cut down the mage.

As the violent death of their leader sinks in the cultist shuffle into action and the party descends into the fray, one cultist makes a run for it and Ludo, being a psycho, hunts him down. Unfortunately one of the cultists has a bad case of impaling themselves on the obelisk and, wait is that…can you hear slay bells?

While the party make relatively short work of the cultists a slightly inconvenient intervention of the terrible Jolly One does put a spanner in the works as the demon and the Egg face off in a clash of the rotund Cages’.

Ludo on the other hand is having a great time hunting the now fully naked cultist down in the alley behind the coldhouse, loosing two arrows into his poor unarmoured hide. He staggers on while bleeding heavily, the Halfling has him now! But wait it’s a patrol of the watch, those staunch protectors of the law will…wait he’s not being arrested, they look concerned…gah it’s that bastard Gottard!

Ludo arrives back to the coldhouse with the bad news just as the Jolly One starts kicking over braziers, the building goes up and its all the party can do to whisk the children out of there before they are eaten by the flames.

The party are promptly arrested for cult activities but we’re able to convince the watch that they were in fact heroes sirs, unfortunately they are less successful in convincing them that Gotthard was behind it (the poor innocent merchant kidnapped out of his bed…). Still they saved the children and that’s pretty heroic, although you know what they say, ‘you better watch out…’.

Wellentag, 1 Ulriczeit

IT’S CARNIVAL!

The party awake to the sounds of merrymaking and the inn is full of people already slugging back the ale, the lads get some grub while Christoph chats up some Tileans and they head out to seize the day.

First up the Egg manages to put the Graf’s Champion on his arse to win the honorary title of champion of the carnival…for about five minutes before Christoph shows him how it’s done and put him on his arse (it is closer to the ground to be fair). Still he got a nice medallion out of it.

Ludo manages to boss the archery competition - unsurprisingly – and humbles the Graf’s Master of the Hunt, whose a good sport about it despite being an elf.

The party then make their way to the Bernabau Stadium to watch the Egg get splattered by a minotaur. He has agreed to no armour on the condition that he could bring his pick, he also manages to sneak a bolas in through his unmentionables, his objective – survive (or kill the minotaur but come on).

As the dwarf steps into the stadium and takes in the roar of the crowd he is greeted by (of course) the mighty labyrinth. However the dwarf is no fool and instead of wandering around it he camps out on the first exit manhole he finds and waits. And waits. And wa… wait a minute can you hear snuffling? And BAM the minotaur comes crashing through a wall and its all the dwarf can do to avoid being spitted.

Fortunately the beast is not armed but with its razor claws and powerful horns surely it is the dwarfs end? The two powerhouses exchange a number of blows and the dwarf is looking a bit ragged but wait, the minotaur breaks off to deliver a satisfying gore with its horns and for its hubris suffers a huge puncture to the chest. With a bellow to his ancestors and the bated breath of the crowd the Egg launches into the air and crashes his pick into the beasts head crushing it utterly. The crowd is quiet and then erupts into cheers as the dwarf goes to collect his well-earned prize money and the halfling loses a bet.

After a bit of improtu medical attention from the Fair Herr Dokterr [HA] the party go out on the lash, with the sophisticatos of the group heading to a play and ending up having a few too many cocktails with Deputy-High Wizard Janna and the Court Minstrel Rallane Lafarel, while the simpler members popping to the pub with the Graf’s champion and masters of the hunt, who liked the cut of their collective gibs. In general a pleasant night hobnobbing with the cities betters and not paying for drinks, although the champion did seem a bit off when talking about the taxes…

Aubentag, 2 Ulriczeit

CARNIVAL TWO ELECTRIC BOOGALOO

Slightly less fresh faced this morning our heroes descend to much more quiet inn for a sausage ‘n ale, the Egg and Christoph have received invitations to the royal garden party for becoming honorary champions and Pieter has received a tip off from his boss that Gottard is attending the opera tonight, conveniently so is the party.

Christoph heads off to defend his title, Gottfried pops to the Guild of Wizards and Alchemists to discuss the champions strange behaviour with Janna, Pieter goes to check out the sweet elven gymnasts and Ludo spots an help wanted poster for a missing dog, a fitting quest for our dour hero.

Gottfried discusses Dieters behaviour with Janna, a Gold Wizard and as such quite knowledgeable about the human mind [Geek Facts children – Gold wizards, or alchemists, mould materials ala lead to gold, this includes the mind and as such are one of the few good sources for mental cures in WFRP, they do not do mind magic so cannot shield against something like terror PW, you want a priest of sigmar or something for that], she agrees that the behaviour sounds odd but not like a magical compulsion, perhaps hypnosis?

Ludo arrives at the inn to inquire about the job, along with over 50 vagrants carrying a variety of dogs… the innkeeper is less than happy and using a chamber pot encourages them to go away, to a barrage of abuse and small dogs. A preacher takes this opportunity to berate the crowd for their corruption singling out Ludo and a young girl who flees into the opposing inn. The crowd, already angry, are not too happy to be told the error of their ways, by a sigmarite no less, and again open up with the dogs, Ludo exits stage left just as the watch arrive to crack some skulls.

Christoph faces some stiff opponents in the form of a drunk farmer and a fat blacksmith, somehow managing to defeat them. While the crowd make a big deal of him being a softy southerner they love his show boating and cheer his victories.

Gottfried arrives at the Middenplatz, the Graf’s residence, to visit the champion and with Janna’s assurance for this unknown Nobel the Knights Panther escort them in. Dieter is pleased to see them and introduces his fiancée to Gottfried while Janna examines him. After a short amount of time she becomes convinced he has been hypnotised, Katrina is dismayed but notes that, now that you mention it, the court physician was bragging the other day that he could make a man ‘squawk like a monkey’. They arrange to have a pre-opera drink at the Soprano and Dieter agrees to invite the physician, Luigi Pavarotti […].

While waiting for the mêlée outside to die down Ludo approaches the embarrassed young woman, a waitress from this inn and through a combination of bribery and intimidation gets her to spill. She seems to think he’s someone that he’s not as she explains about accepting a bribe from that Tilean ‘songstress’ who somehow managed enrapture a full inn to such a degree that she could rob its occupants of their jewellery uncontested.

The party gathers back at the Templars Arms and after a few stiff drinks and donning their finest clothes are ready for their most challenging opponent yet, ‘The Barbarian of Seville’.

Arriving at the Soprano, the party are herded into a private room where they come face to face with Luigi, who promptly welcomes them like long lost friends and gets the round in. After some questioning it seems that the Tilean, while lewd, is on the level. When asked where he learnt hypnotism he dives into a tale of how, while travelling Ind, he saved the Maharaja’s son from a horde of Tigermen, he was invited to court as a reward and learnt many secrets from the Maharaja’s slavemage, including hypnotism.

They convince Luigi to help Dieter and he is successful, the party learn he was approached by a beautiful Bretonian (much to Kirsten’s distaste), who convinced him on the benefits of the tax.

The party then attend the opera and spy on Goebbels, who doesn’t do anything too exciting, drink too many cocktails and have a magical evening. As is the way these things go on their way home the party is attacked by thugs and as is the way these things go even more the party demolish them, with Pieter successfully detaining one, oh my!

---------

Phew! Intrigue in the city of the white wolf, who are all these characters, how will we remember their names, are they red herrings, are they poorly delivered plot hooks, who knows!?

Side note, anyone can learn hypnotism from Luigi if they would like for 200XP.

Side side note, I am playing a long board game on Sunday (Twilight Imperium you guys!) which may run into our allotted time, if so would you be happy to run a shadow run X_Kot? Otherwise it might start late depending, I’ll keep you informed.

You've got blather anyway, so it should be possible for you to cunningly segue from one into the other (or fail the roll, cause suspicion, and then I have to garotte them to death - either way, something entertaining happens. Just try to always hypnotise people near footstools, stepladders, or low walls).